Watches Of The Year: The 13 Best Timepieces Released In 2025
Editing down all the watches of the year into an arbitrary 13-strong list is always hard, but this year has been harder than usual because there have been so many standouts. The reason for this appears to be diversification. The industry used to be dominated by Swiss legacy brands – your Pateks, Rolexes, and Omegas.
Now, because there are so many places to find out about watches, different factions are getting a look in. Japan’s watchmakers, the Brits, and niche independent brands have all been generating column inches and Instagram Reels. Even lesser-known Swiss names are capturing the imagination through the booming pre-owned scene.
There are so many names that could be on this list, but these were the first that came to mind, which surely means they broke through the white noise and made an impression. There may be those who feel that the Rolex Land Dweller should be on here, but given how much has already been written about it, this list felt like an opportunity to give some others a chance. It is Christmas after all!
Bremont Terra Nova Jump Hour
Bet no one had this on their 2025 bingo card – a Bremont jump hour. Still with comparatively new CEO Davide Cerrato now at the helm, it’s best to expect the unexpected. And this is certainly that.
Having the jump hour at 9 o’clock improves legibility and looks cool, while a gloss black dial and white markings bring a Jazz Age vibe to a tool watch.
Powering it is an exclusive Sellita movement. It’s just fabulous.
Parmigiani Fleurier Toric Quantieme Perpetuel
Yes, this is out of most people’s price range, but it’s on this list because even if you can’t afford it, you can appreciate its beauty.
Since Guido Terreni took over as CEO in 2021, Parmigiani has gone from a brand that makes watches that are beautiful on the inside but a bit of a mess dialside to stone-cold classics. It’s all muted pastel palettes and striped-back dial furniture as this perpetual calendar shows.
It’s a watch that rewards repeat viewing because the divine is in the detail.
Frederique Constant x Time+Tide Highlife Moonphase Manufacture Onyx Moon
This limited edition you might be able to afford but not buy, so think about it instead as an addition to your pre-owned wish list. Time+Tide, the watch industry’s equivalent of a multi-hyphenate – media business, retailer, top-notch collaborator – has teamed up with Frederique Constant for this chef’s kiss of a moonphase.
It is a host of firsts – first Highlife with a lunar complication, necessitating a new in-house movement, first onyx dial, and first to feature the five-link stainless steel bracelet. That’s the good news. The bad is it’s limited to 100 pieces, and when they are gone, that’s it.
Buy now at Time And Tide Watches
The Fears x Studio Underd0g Gimlet
Another addition to that ever-growing pre-owned list is this collaboration between two stars of the British independent scene –Fears and Studio Underd0g.
It was launched as an exclusive for British Watchmakers’ Day – the annual celebration of all things horological from these fair isles, where people set up tents and queue to get the limited editions they want (next edition March 7 2026, bring camping gear and a thermos).
Inspired by the cocktail of the same name, it is a heady mix of Fears’ 1930s old-school elegance combined with Studio Underd0g’s irreverent sense of fun. Make mine a double.
Ressence Type 3 Marc Newson
Two industrial designers, one unifying aesthetic, one gorgeous watch. Benôit Mintiens and Marc Newson met by chance. Newson was exhibiting next door to Mintiens’ retailer in Hong Kong, who got his number and passed it on.
The result is a Type 3 – Ressence’s oil-filled design – with a Newson touch. It is his 40 years of design condensed into 44mm. Minimal hands from his 1990s Ikepod watch, his signature colour palette of greys and blacks with vibrant yellow and celadon green, and the smooth elliptical silhouette.
It’s such a design classic that you wonder why they didn’t get together sooner.
Buy now at ressencewatches.com
Chanel J12 Bleu
It took Chanel five years of research and development to finally create ceramic in a shade of blue with which it was happy. Given that, in the Maison’s iconography, five is an auspicious number, it makes sense that the result is utterly gorgeous and so perfectly Chanel.
Aside from the colour, this is the J12 that was launched 25 years ago, a style that has continued to evoke that neutral, androgynous visual language that made Mlle famous. Powered by an in-house movement developed in collaboration with the majority Tudor-owned Kenissi, it has substance as well as style.
Christopher Ward C12 Loco
Despite Christopher Ward’s openness about how it operates, it’s still a head-scratcher how they continue to offer haute horlogerie at seriously affordable prices. Case in point is the Loco, which puts its free-sprung balance wheel, something fiendishly difficult to make, front and centre. Literally, it’s on the dial.
This is the brand’s second in-house movement, though it had to call on the expertise of Feller Pivotages, which specialises in hairsprings and escapements. Flip it over, and the vertical symmetry of the gearing is reminiscent of Chanel’s Calibre 1, created for Monsieur.
There are other colours, but it’s the orange that gets our vote.
Orient Bambino 38mm 75th anniversary Peanuts Edition
For years, Orient remained under the radar, only known in its native Japan; the brand that was both part of the Seiko stable and, because of its Epson ownership, somehow not. That has all changed in the last two years, since it became available in the UK.
Now it has cemented its desirability with a seriously cool collaboration featuring everyone’s favourite beagle – Snoopy. The dial is clean, the old logo adds a touch of retro cool and on the first of every month, Woodstock appears in the date window instead of the number ‘1’.
It’s understated, but in high demand – especially from watch journos, which tells you everything you need to know.
Louis Vuitton Monterey
Eagle-eyed observers looking through pictures of Louis Vuitton’s AW2025 Paris couture show will have noticed a watch not seen since the 1980s adorning the necks and wrists of models. That was the Maison soft launching its most cult watch to date – the Monterey.
Launched in 1988 and discontinued in the early 1990s, it failed to attract an audience. It has now been pared back – only the pebble-smooth case and distinctive syringe hands remain. The dial is enamel, the markings are retro stop-watch style, and the case is in 18kt yellow-gold.
It’s limited to 188 pieces, so if you want one, the vintage market might be the place to shop for an 1980s original.
Grand Seiko Spring Drive UFA
There’s accurate, then there is the Grand Seiko Spring Drive UFA. Spring Drive is Grand Seiko’s baby. A mainspring regulated by a vibrating quartz crystal that, through an integrated circuit (IC) connected to a specially designed glide wheel, constantly checks the spin of said wheel, slowing it via an electromagnetic pulse if it speeds up.
In the UFA, this super-accurate technology has been refined. The quartz crystals are better, and the IC improved, so you can make fine adjustments at the time of service. The result? A watch accurate to +/-20 seconds. A year.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Monoface Small Seconds
Just when you think Jaeger-LeCoultre can’t do anything more with its Reverso, it pulls this beauty out of the watch roll. This is the first time that a Reverso has been put on a full-gold Milanese bracelet, and there is something about the slinky elegance of this addition that turns the familiar lines of this design into something more sexy and less sporty.
The tone-on-tone dial adds to the aura of opulence, a quality emphasised by its graining. It illustrates how one small change can create a complete vibe shift.
Hamilton Boulton Death Stranding 2 Limited Edition
Hamilton has long been associated with the silver screen; now it has hit the small screen, creating a limited-edition watch to celebrate the launch of the follow-up to 2019’s Death Stranding – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
To tap into the post-apocalyptic vibe, Hamilton worked with the game’s art director, Yoji Shinkawa, to give some menace to its Boulton design that debuted in 1941. This is a dark watch. The only colour on this PVD-coated titanium cased timepiece is the orange on the hands.
Under all this menace is Hamilton’s own H-10 with an 80-hour power reserve. Virtual guns at the ready.
Piaget Andy Warhol
As collaborations go, this one between Piaget and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was a highlight. To pay homage to the Pop-Art artist, Piaget chose yellow Namibian serpentine, pink opal, and green chrysoprase to create a surrealist rendering of Warhol’s self-portrait in his ‘fright wig’.
That image is helpfully engraved on the back of the 18kt yellow-gold case, which is the 15012 or Black Tie, just one of the 300 watches discovered in his collection when he died in 1987.
It’s not for everyone, but then neither was Warhol, which makes it a fitting tribute.
